Upcoming Exhibitions

Difficult Landscapes: Architecture Against the Odds
London
October 11, 2024–Spring 2025
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) presents an exhibition exploring feats of architectural achievement in the face of complex and uncompromising sites. Divided into three thematic sections—Difficult Landscapes, Difficult Urban Spaces, and Difficult Reworkings—the exhibition delves into over twenty complex projects across the United Kingdom, dating from the 1900s to today. Featured are projects from Britain’s top architects Nicholas Grimshaw, Norman Foster, and Neave Brown, as well as the contemporary practices of KnoxBhavan, Tonkin Liu, and Carmody Groarke. See architecture.com.

MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today
Doha, Qatar
November 1, 2024–January 31, 2025
Organized by the nascent Art Mill Museum at the National Museum of Qatar, this exhibition gathers over 200 artworks—including paintings, drawings, photographs, videos, sculptures, and installations—representing a wide array of narratives and perspectives in Pakistani culture over the past 80 years. The exhibition, designed by architect Raza Ali Dada, is composed of 12 sections, including newly commissioned works by artists and architects living and working in Pakistan and its diasporas. The artworks, programs, and events extend from the gallery spaces to the courtyard of the Palace of Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani. See nmoq.org.qa.

Ongoing Exhibitions

AA Folios: 1983-1985
New York
Through September 24, 2024
An exhibition at The Cooper Union presents the first seven of the 14 AA Folios, a publication series produced by the Architectural Association in London from 1983 to 1991. Conceived under the leadership of AA chairman Alvin Boyarsky, the Folios provided an early platform for the work of now-renowned architects including Peter Cook, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, and Bernard Tschumi. Dedicated to the work of a single architect or firm, each issue was paired with an exhibition and formatted as a 12"-by-12" boxed set of plates with an accompanying catalog of essays and interviews. “In this way,” wrote Boyarsky in the inaugural issue, “the experience of the exhibitions and the qualities of the drawings will be made universally available and a further link will be established between theory and practice.” On loan from The Cooper Union Library, which possesses a rare complete set, the first seven issues are presented chronologically in their entirety. The remaining seven will be shown in a second exhibition in the spring of 2025. See cooper.edu.

The Black Home as Public Art
Austin
Through November 15, 2024
The University of Texas at Austin's School of Architecture presents an exhibition examining creative perceptions of the Black home in the United States during the postwar period. Organized by UT Austin associate professor Charles L. Davis II with the Center for American Architecture and Design, the show centers eight artist-led adaptive reuse and public art strategies that aim to reframe Black domestic space to reflect the demands of racial justice movements and contemporary politics, from the introduction of new multifunctional interior spaces to the transformation of an empty urban lot into an open-air living room. Contributing artists include Theaster Gates, Amanda Williams, and Tyree Guyton.  See soa.utexas.edu

madskills: Self-Documenting Construction on Social Media
Montreal
Through October 20, 2024
An exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) investigates the contemporary trend of self-documentation in construction work, wherein contractors, builders, and tradespeople record and share their skills, creativity, and concerns on social media. Where past documentation practices largely tended to subject workers to the gaze of the camera, or erase their presence altogether, the diffusion of these images and videos heighten the visibility of construction workers, and their material culture and practices. Juxtaposing this popularly diffused content with items from the CCA collection, the exhibition aims to set the stage for broader conversations about work and working in the built environment. See cca.qc.ca.

Outré West: The American School of Architecture from Oklahoma to California
Oklahoma City
Through October 20, 2024
The Oklahoma Contemporary presents an exhibition exploring the migratory work of the American School of Architecture, which emerged from the University of Oklahoma in the postwar period, led by practitioners such as Bruce Goff and Herb Greene. In contrast to the European influence of Bauhaus and Beaux Arts schools, then dominant in U.S.-based architectural practice, the American School emphasized individual creativity and experimentation: “We preach no dogma,” said Goff. This exhibition explores the work of architects who were educated and mentored in Oklahoma in the 1950s and 60s and went on to develop practices in California, where a cultural openness and booming economy created ideal testing grounds for their unconventional approaches to design. On display are large-scale photographs, architectural models, and press clippings framing the works of architects such as Violeta Autumn, John Marsh Davis, Arthur Dyson, Donald MacDonald, and Mickey Muennig, among others. See oklahomacontemporary.org.

Circle, Square, Triangle: Houses I Never Lived In. The Residential Work of Myron Goldfinger 1963-2008
New York
Through March 22, 2025
The Paul Rudolph Institute For Modern Architecture (PRIMA) presents one of two interrelated exhibitions exploring the work of Myron Goldfinger (1933-2023), using material uncovered while archiving his estate. The late architect, who studied under Louis Kahn and Paul Rudolph at the University of Pennsylvania, was known for his playful and geometric approach to architecture. Composed of contemporary and historical models, a range of original drawings, and  photographic prints by Norman McGrath, this exhibition explores both unrealized and built residential designs by Goldfinger, including the Goldfinger Residence in Waccabuc, NY (1969); the Zack Residence in Sands Point, NY (1977), and Roberta Flack’s apartment at the Dakota building in New York City (1975). The accompanying exhibition, on view at the Mitchell Algus Gallery, explores exclusively unbuilt Goldfinger projects, primarily in New York, including a 1975 housing proposal for Roosevelt Island and a 1970 design for the Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza. See paulrudolph.institute. 

Carlo Scarpa: Timeless Masterpieces
Cold Spring, New York
Through March 31, 2025
An exhibition at Magazzino Italian Art features a selection of 56 Murano glassworks designed by Carlo Scarpa between 1926 and 1947. In this period, the Italian architect collaborated with two of the era’s most prominent Murano glassmakers, M.V.M. Cappellin & Co. and Venini. Notable works include the Pasta vitrea series, created between 1929 and 1930, distinguished by their brilliant colors and gold leaf application, and the Laccati neri e rossi series from 1940, whose design emulates Chinese lacquer. See magazzino.art.

FIX: Care and Repair
Helsinki
Through May 1, 2025
This joint exhibition at the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum Helsinki focuses on how the passage of time affects architecture and design, and repair as an active practice. Illuminating the maintenance work that often takes place out of sight, FIX features selected examples from the fields of architecture and design, along with four newly commissioned contemporary art installations by Jessica Andrey Bogush, Sini Henttu, Liisa Ryynänen, and Helmi Kajaste and Petra Vallila. The Lauri Johansson–designed exhibition invites visitors to contemplate questions of repair, cleaning, and upkeep, and to participate in an ongoing program of events accompanying the displayed works. See designmuseum.fi.

Events

Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial
New York
November 2, 2024–August 10, 2025
The seventh offering in Cooper Hewitt’s Design Triennial (which was established in 2000) explores design’s role in shaping the material and emotional realities of “home” across the United States and its territories. Featuring 25 site-specific, newly commissioned installations throughout the Andrew and Louise Carnegie Mansion, each floor of the exhibition is organized by themes that evoke experiences of home, from cultural interpretations of domesticity to experimental and utopian concepts and construction models for more sustainable building. See cooperhewitt.org.

MCHAP.emerge Conference on Critical Practice 
Chicago
September 25-27, 2024
For the inaugural MCHAP.emerge conference, the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) will convene architects, faculty, and students at the S.R. Crown Hall on the Illinois Institute of Technology’s campus for a series of discussions around ecology, technology, and generational shifts. The conference will conclude with a ceremony honoring the four 2024 MCHAP.emerge finalists and announcing the winning project. See mchap.co.

2024 YC Foundation Lecture: Shigeru Ban
New York
September 27, 2024
The Cooper Union's Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture presents a lecture by alumnus and Pritzker laureate Shigeru Ban titled “Balancing Architecture Works and Social Contributions.” Made possible by the YC Foundation, Inc., which supports architecture lectures at The Cooper Union to inspire the next generation of architects, the talk will explore the architect’s past and recent works as well as his disaster relief efforts over the past 30 years. See cooper.edu.